Waha Nui

Kaneohe swimmer Jenny Bensman won the 100-meter freestyle race at the Special Olympics World Summer Games June 25-July 4 in Athens, Greece. Jenny is a veteran athlete with Hawaii Special Olympics and already has earned about 100 medals locally ... Kailua residents Jershon Baldomero and Jacob Butters have entered basic cadet training at the U.S. Air Force Academy in preparation for their freshman year there ...

Kailua’s Susan Des Jarlais has joined Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties’ Windward office as a Realtor-associate ... Generous businesses saved the day for the Kailua fireworks show, especially Sunetric, a Kailua-based solar company that contributed $25,000 with only three days left before the July 4 pyrotechnics. It was the largest such donation in 63 years, says Brook Gramann ...

When the Pali Lions went to the Lions International Convention in Seattle earlier this month, they were part of “the largest parade in Seattle history,” writes club bulletin editor Clarence Izuo of Kailua. The delegates also heard an address by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and had their pick of fresh crab and micro brews. Clarence adds: “We went to a Japanese restaurant where a plate of sashimi was only $10 and a larger grilled hamachi kama was only $11!” Fit for a lion’s appetite ...

Amber Guzman

Belt Collins Hawaii won a design award at Scenic Hawaii’s 2011 Betty Crocker Landscape Awards ceremony June 27 for its work on a sustainable single-family private home in Lanikai ...

Another winner is Mehana Oriana Muranaka. She was second runner-up for Miss Keiki Hula 2001 at the annual Queen Liliuokalani Keiki Hula Competition July 7. Mehana dances with Aloha ‘o Pu’uwailani Halau, based in Enchanted Lake